Thursday, August 30, 2007

Low Blow Joe

Today's New York Times has an interesting article about "Low Blow" Joe Novak and the right-wing efforts to smear Obama.

On the other side, Zack Exley of Huffington Post's Off the Bus has a fascinating piece about Obama's community organizing approach to his campaign. Will it make a difference on February 5? If it does work, Obama's approach will cause a radical shift in political campaigning.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Obama Misquoted By NYTimes

FAIR has a nice alert on how a New York Times story last week falsely attributed to Obama the imaginary idea that anti-war protesters are protesting at military funerals. In fact, it's right-wing nuts, and Obama was supporting the idea to limit such protests.
Hillary Haters and the Myth of the Obama Staffer

Today's Chicago Tribune has an article about the Hillary haters out there. I write about this issue, too, based on attending the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference in March, where Hillary barf bags could be seen and all kinds of vile comments about Hillary. The Democrats who think that Hillary is the primary candidate most likely to win in the general election don't understand the intense commitment of these Hillary haters who will stop at nothing to defeat her.

However, the Tribune article also includes a serious error sliming Barack Obama. The article describes "a renegade staffer for Sen. Barack Obama" who created a video mocking Hillary by imitating the infamous "1984" TV commercial. However, the person wasn't an Obama staffer. Phillip de Vellis worked for Blue State Digital, a contractor that designed Obama's website, although de Vellis didn't work directly on the website. Clearly, the term "staffer" typically refers to the direct employees of a campaign, not to every employee of every vendor.

Why does this matter? First, it's factually wrong. Second, it smears Obama by associating him with the vilest Hillary haters. Third, it attacks Obama by implying that he is unable to control his own campaign staff.

Friday, August 24, 2007

The Myth of Foreign Policy Inexperience

Time magazine's Michael Duffy reports on Obama's proposal on Cuba. Duffy repeats the conventional wisdom: "Whatever it may be saying publicly, the Obama campaign knows its man stumbled in recent weeks on foreign policy and that he needs to start over." But if that's the case, why is Obama moving ahead and repeating the same tactic of challenging the conventional wisdom on foreign policy? In reality, Obama's op-ed in the Miami Herald shows why he's the most knowledgable on foreign policy.

Ironically, the Chicago Tribune's Steve Chapman criticized Obama for lacking "audacity" in ending the idiotic approach of the Washington consensus to Cuba. Still, even Chapman admits that Obama is far ahead of Clinton and the Republicans who are afraid to challenge the status quo of a failed Cuba policy.

About Me

2019-20 Fellow, University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, co-editor of the American Association of University Professors' AcademeBlog.org, and the editor of the Illinois AAUP's Illinois Academe. He has a Ph.D. in higher education from Illinois State University, and is the author of eight books, including "The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on Higher Education" (Duke University Press), "Patriotic Correctness: Academic Freedom and Its Enemies" (Paradigm Publishers), and "President Trump Unveiled: Exposing the Bigoted Billionaire" (OR Books).